Halloween, Ghosts, And Voodoo

New Orleans paranormal, occult, voodoo, and witchcraft legends.

Fall occasionally makes us think of fall harvests, Oktoberfest, and the like, but for the most part, the month of October usually becomes an overture to Halloween. New Orleans certainly has its share of ghosts and ghost stories. One that attracts a lot of attention is the story of the "Naked Ghost," said to be the spirit of a young slave girl who went out naked on the roof of her master's home in December and stayed there all night, in an effort to make him marry her. She froze to death.

Adrian Nicholas McGrath also writes of the Ghost of the French Opera House. The female apparition on St. Ann Street, known as the "Witch of the French Opera House", was supposedly first spotted as she emerged from the French Opera House, took a walk, then disappeared. Then, there are the LaLaurie slave ghosts of the French Quarter and the ghosts of the Old Carrollton jail. There are many, many more spirits, including the most famous of them all: Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen.

New Orleans offers a number of spooky tours to take you through cemeteries, haunted buildings, and other paranormal places, usually at night and by candlelight for effect. For supernatural, vampire, Halloween-themed, and haunted tours, visit New Orleans Tours. They offer a Ghost & Vampire Tour as well as a Cemetery & Voodoo Tour.

If you don't care for either of the above categories, try visiting some of New Orleans' many museums. The city is home to several museums dedicated to voodoo, ghosts, and the paranormal. One is the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. It is a fun site to visit, although some of the graphic links are not immediately apparent. It even has audio!

Of course, you might want to visit some New Orleans cemeteries, which are are especially eerie, with above-ground tombs and crypts like silent little mausoleums completely obstructing one's view. The overwhelming loneliness that descends on you while visiting these graveyards, even during the day, will send shivers up and down your spine. If you look at Cities of the Dead, you will understand why the cemeteries easily conjure up images of ghosts, goblins, witches, demons, voodoo and vampires.